Advantages of organic farming; points to discuss

Organic farming is a healthier technique to cultivate crops. Organic farming practices have brought about major changes in the health of humans and in the environment. The usage of chemicals is very rare in organic farming when compared to conventional farming techniques. Relatively, the market for organic yields has hyped significantly.

The major advantages of organic farming are:

  • Reduced use of pesticides and chemicals

As per the census, if every farmers in the US practices organic farming, then we could decrease the use of 500 million chemical fertilizers and pesticides which could harmfully affect the environment. Only by a team effort, we could achieve this target. Chemicals can harm the nature in different ways:

  • When they are applied on plants, they equally contaminate the soil, air and water. The effect of pesticides can last for decades.
  • Care must be taken while using synthetic pesticides as they can adversely affect the growth of cover crops and the crop rotation technique. It can also result in soil erosion.
  • Organic farming results in healthy soil

When you expect a yield with good quality and nutrients, you must treat the soil accordingly. You must stop treating soil with harmful chemicals and pesticides that can destroy the fertility of the soil. According to the environmental activists, adopting natural cultivation practices are much better than chemical soil management. Studies show that when organic farming is practiced in a field, its fertility and richness increases year by year.

  • Prevents soil erosion

Scientifically it is a proven fact that organic farming can prevent soil erosion and other land issues. While comparing organic and conventional farming technique, the top soil of organically fed crops is featured eight inches more than the other. Soil erosion is a serious environmental issue that affects the land, food supply and humans. To an extent organic farming reduces soil erosion.

  • Decreases the effect of global warming

Scientist has proved that healthy organic farming system can reduce the emission of carbon-di-oxide and helps in slow climatic change. Consistency in the climatic change is maintained. Statistically speaking, if 10,000 normal farms in the US were converted to organic farms, it helps to much of the carbon inside the soil. This helps in declining almost 1,174,400 cars from the road. This would be a great achievement.

  • Organic farming maintains the quality of water

Water scarcity and the unavailability of healthy drinking water is a major threat to our planet. Researchers reveal that 45% of the fresh water bodies in the planet is polluted by chemicals used for conventional farming. The chemical pesticides and fertilizers make fresh water inappropriate to consume.

Organic farming does not pollute water but helps to keep them clean and stops pollution.

  • Discourages algal bloom

Algal bloom can negatively affect the health of people and the marine creatures. They also cause depletion in tourism and regional economics. The major cause of algal blooms are the run offs from the petroleum based fertilizers which is generally used in conventional farming.

  • Supports the health and welfare of the living creatures

Natural habitat consists of microorganisms, insects, birds, fish, animals, humans etc. Organic farming enhances the growth of these living organisms without destroying their habitat and providing better conditions that makes them happy in the farmland.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe illustrator is a creative tool used by graphic designers and artists. Illustrator provides high quality vector graphics features which help the users to created animated images, logos, icons, billboards and product packaging images. This software can be accessed through desktop as well as iPads.

Illustrator allows the person to change shapes, apply colours into logos and icons. The tools present in this software helps to draw free-hand sketches, trace drawings and recolor graphics. Illustrator drawings are not pixel based but vector based, so the art remains crisp and clear even if you zoom the image to the maximum scale.

You can use desktop or touch screen option to do your work. Even when your offline, your works are synced automatically and saved in the cloud. So you can start from where you left.

With the help of Adobe Sensei feature, you can bring the same colour in the photo to your work. Mainly you can transfer a hand-drawn sketch into your work surface and trace them, to create a vector graphic image.

Graphical Illustrator was developed in 1987 with very few features. From there it kept on updating and today it stands as a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. Mainly this software is used by graphic designers, web designers, professional illustrators and visual artists.

The wide variety of tools present in this software helps the users to reduce the work load and create quality products. They are basically used to create logos, diagrams, cartoons, graphs etc. Illustrator also enables the user to change text formats so that he can create his own style of postcards, posters and other visual designs.

Adobe Illustrator comes under the family of Creative Cloud, but a person can also buy the license of Illustrator separately. Since illustrator is a part of CC, the works done in this software can be shared with other linking softwares like After Effects, InDesign, Photoshop and Premier Pro. You can start a work in Illustrator and if you feel like adding some effects, you can export it to Photoshop. This is the advantage of Creative Cloud.

The artworks in Illustrator are created with atmost quality. Even if you enlarge the work done in Illustrator, the image quality remains the same. They use the mathematical strategy to construct lines, arcs and other geometrical parts.

Illustrator CC

The Adobe Illustrator CC is a version of Illustrator which is accessible through Creative Cloud. The initial version of Illustrator CC is V17 which was developed in the year 2013. This software has updated in many aspects by adding wide variety of features and the latest version is Illustrator 2020.

The major difference between the normal Illustrator and CC is the ability to sync the work and save them automatically to the cloud. They can also combine their works with ‘Behance’ and showcase them among the Adobe community. They are also used to create attractive portfolios. The CC version has changes in the fonts and colours when compared to the normal ones. The recently updated software has the feature to draw using touch screen and has a wide variety of customized brushes.

The possible formats by which the works can be saved in Illustrator are:

  • Portable Document Format:  By saving the files in PDF format, it allows the work to showcase independent of software, OS and hardware. The PDF format allows the user to compress all his works in a single file.
  • Encapsulated PostScript: This is a storage format that helps the user to save files in graphics format. These files are either independent or saved along with another Postscript file. The files saved in this format will have low-resolution preview of images.
  • Windows Metafile: This format feature helps us to store our images in the form of vector graphics and bitmaps. They have a function called Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) that helps to display the work.
  • Vector Markup Language: This is a XML based format that helps to save two dimensional vector graphics images.
  • Scalable Vector Graphics: They store two-dimensional vector graphic works including animations and interactive images.

Other available export formats are:

  • PNG
  • TXT
  • AutoCAD
  • JPEG
  • GIF
  • Photoshop
  • Flash

Adobe Illustrator can be purchased at the rate of Rs.1, 675 per month and Rs.19, 158 for a year including GST.

If you are an artistic person looking for a perfect software to create sketches, potraits and designs, try Adobe Illustrator.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe has wide variety of tools that helps people to excel in their specified fields, mainly in the creative ones. Adobe focuses much on releasing softwares which are related to creativity.

Here we are going to discuss about Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop is basically a photo editing software. Apart from editing, digital painting, animation and graphic design can be done using this software. This helps to develop ideas in desktops and iPads. Images can be converted to any form according to your imagination. Imagination has no limits. Adobe provides you with the platform to learn skills and share your work with the community through live stream. Compared to other photo editing softwares, Adobe Photoshop is creative, easy to handle and faster.

The tools in Photoshop help the user to remove objects, retouch and recolor them. Different colour gradients are present in this software. Using the smart tool feature and magical effects, you can convert an image into an artistical work.

Using different layers present in this software, you can swiftly create images which cannot be captured using camera. They also have different varieties of brushes which suits different work, including spray paint and ink wash effect. Brush is an important tool for an artist. Adobe provides them such that you can improve in digital drawing, painting and lettering.

Drawing tools like chalks, markers, pens, pencils etc. can be utilized by the users to improve their creativity.

Poster designing, banner designing and graphic design can be done with perfection using this software. The ability to combine photos, insert graphics and text paves way to the entirely new possibility of posture design. Changing the colour gradient and shades to polish the images can give a professional touch to your work.

The updated version of Photoshop is also available in iPad. Using Apple pencil or touch screen, you can create sophisticated composites and to retouch images. Whatever work you do in Photoshop, it is automatically synced in the cloud so that anytime you can pick up from where you left.

Professional detailing of images can be done using this software. The enhanced attributes enables the user to zoom on to images and remove unwanted scratches and marks. You can even change the expression, age and posture of the person in the photograph. This is mainly done using the ‘Neutral filters’.

The collaboration tab helps you to invite people to edit your work present in the cloud.

The key feature of the latest Photoshop software is its sky replacement tool. According to the images, you can change the sky patterns and colour. They look so natural and real.

The developers have included an improved tutorial function which helps you to be familiar with the tools in the software and it also allows you access Youtube tutorial videos.

The newly introduced Content-aware fill tool helps the user to remove unnecessary elements from the background of the image.

The subscription rate of Adobe Photoshop for one year is Rs.19, 158 including GST.

Major features of Photoshop

  • Features including adjusting, cropping and retouching of photos.
  • Tools to remove and change objects from the background.
  • Adding images to create new scenes.
  • Availability of Lightroom photos.
  • Access of templates from Adobe Stock.
  • Automate task and actions.
  • Wide range of filters including blurs.
  • Advanced brush types and sketches.
  • Conversion of artwork into 3D.
  • Availability of variable fonts.

Important tools in Photoshop

  • Clone stamp tool
  • Pen tool
  • Measuring and Navigation
  • Shape tools
  • Selection tools
  • Video editing tool
  • 3D extrusion
  • Mobile integration
  • 3D printing tools
  • Camera raw
  • Colour replacement tools

Minimum requirements to install Adobe Photoshop in your system

  • CPU: Intel or AMD processor having 64-bit support, 2 GHz fast processor.
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 3.1 GB storage space
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card
  • 64-bit Windows OS
  • 1280×800 screen resolution.
  • Stable internet connection.

If you are a photographer or a creative person looking for a perfect software to edit your photos, Adobe Photoshop is the one!

www.adobe.com

Organic farming of drumstick; a brief description

Organic farming is an ancient technique of farming which is adopted by the farmers nowadays. This technique does not harm any living organisms, including micro-organisms as they do not use any type of chemicals while cultivating the crops. They purely depend on natural products for the development of the crops as well as to prevent pest and diseases. Organically cultivated products are good for health and improve the life span of people. Almost 60% of the farmers have now turned to organic cultivation. Compared to conventional style of farming, they are more profitable.

Let us now look at the cultivation techniques of drumstick.

Drumstick falls under that category of plants whose parts, except roots are consumed. The seeds, flowers, leaves and stems are edible and are highly nutritious. Drumstick is also known as ‘Moringa’. The roots of moringa tree are set to have high medicinal value and used as a main ingredient in Ayurvedic medicines. Drumstick is a largely cultivated crop in most of the Asian and African countries. Drumstick is a very common vegetable of South India and they are largely consumed.

Drumstick is mainly cultivated for their fleshy nutrient rich pods. On an average, these trees grow up to a height of 10-12 meters and will acquire a maximum diameter of 45 cm. the flowering process starts after 6 months of planting the crop. The flowering period is mainly between April to June. These crops have high resistance power to droughts and dry weathers.

Moringa plants grow efficiently in the semi-arid and subtropical climates. The soil requirement for these crops is well-drained loamy soil or clay loam. The pH level of the soil should be between 6.2-7. Proper drainage system should be planned because water logging can cause damages to the crop. They should be planted in areas where there is plenty of sunlight.

The moringa plants can tolerate temperature up to 48 degree Celsius and above that can dry out the crops. They have tap root system and the long tap helps the crops to withstand dry weathers. When the rainfall is recorded below 800 mm then periodic irrigation should be carried out.

The apt time to sow moringa seeds are during the months of June and July on the peak of monsoon. These crops can be propagated either through seeds or by stem cutting. Stem cut crops will poses deep reaching roots and they are resistant to dryness and wind. The advantage of this method is that they are prone to termites attack.

Moringa seeds are planted and raised in grow bags and they are transferred to the farmland once they attain maturity. Seeds are sown making small pits with 2 cm depth. The germination period of moringa seeds are 2 weeks. Before sowing them, ensure they are disease resistant and can provide quality yields.

Moringa are less irrigated crops. During the dry seasons, they are irrigated regularly and when the crops need them. Common irrigation practices adopted for moringa crops are flood, drip or sprinkler irrigation. During the time of water scarcity, mulching of crops are done to retain the moisture content.

After the 4th month, manuring can be done. Organic manures and fertilizers are applied to the soil at required amounts. To increase the yield and for the better growth of leaves, fertilizers rich with Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium are applied. Other than these, farmyard manure, vermicompost and panchagavya are also applied to improve efficiency.

During monsoon seasons, trenches are created 10cm around the tree and they are filled with green leaves, manures and ash. After that they are covered with soil. This is one way to fertilize the crops.

Moringa trees are mainly infected by the hairy caterpillar and leaf eating caterpillar during the monsoon seasons. To manage these pests, pheromone traps are commonly used.

Apart from these bark eating caterpillar as well as insects poses threat to moringa crops.

These crops can be affected by fungal infections which can be identified by the brown spots on the leaves. If left uncleared, they will spread throughout the plant making the leaves turn yellow and destroying them finally. To avoid these, neem extract spray is applied to the crops.

Harvesting of moringa is done after 9 months of planting. Tender moringa pods are light green in colour and will have a diameter of 1 cm. when it becomes more mature, it will develop a hard texture outside.

Phishing attacks; a detailed study

While analysing the persisting threats, phishing stands out to be the biggest cyber threat. Every data breach that happens begins with a phishing mail. It is through this medium, people get affected by malware, ransomware and cyber frauds. A simple phishing attack can destroy a business, government institutions and even financial organizations. According to the census, 80% of the cyber-attacks reported these days occur due to phishing. Cyber criminals prefer phishing attacks due to its explicit versatility and effectiveness.

Out of phishing attacks, the most common one is the spear phishing. Other types of phishing attacks include angler phishing, smishing, whaling, brand impersonation and business email compromise.

Purpose

The major aim of phishing attack is to force the target to open a deceptive message which contains malware. Once they open the message, the malware lurks into their device and thereby compromising their personal data. Phishing attacks can be simple or complex, based on the target. In most of the cases, the hackers use social engineering techniques along with the information of the target collected from dark web. When it comes to deploying ransomware, the target just need to open the infected message. In other cases, the target will be forced to click a link or attachment which redirects them to an infected page from where the malware gets activated. In case of data leak, the redirected webpage will ask the target to enter his login credentials. In this way the hacker gets control over that account.

The origin of phishing attack was from 1990s, where a bank was attacked. The first advanced phishing attacks occurred on the AOL users where the hackers stole the password of the users to use them for conducting further cyber-crimes. In the late 2000s, a group of cyber criminals were found selling phishing softwares which were used to perform phishing campaigns. Year by year the phishing attacks got advanced and today it stands as a most common type of method used by the cyber hackers.

Happenings

  • Twitter was once badly affected due to phishing attacks. The cyber hackers took control of the accounts of prominent users like Donald Trump and Elon Musk and used them to spread phishing scams promoting crypto currency. After a detailed investigation, the officials found that all this happened due to the leak of a single administration password.
  • The Solar winds hack which occurred in 2020, where the Russian cyber criminals got hold of the data of government, business and other financial institutions. In this attack, the hackers successful set up a back door which leads to some of the most sensitive systems in US. Even today, the officials could not measure the impact of this attack. The major weapon used to launch this attack was phishing.

As per the statistics, in every 39 seconds, a phishing attack happens. The cyber criminals are seeing pandemic as a gift because when people were busy saving their lives from the deadly virus, the threat actors planned and executed cyber-attacks in which most of them were successful. While comparing to 2019, the phishing attack ratio has increased to 667% in 2020. Criminals are using the pandemic situation and from 2020, 18 billion Covid related scams were reported.

How does phishing attack work?

  • First the hacker studies the target. He collects necessary informations to launch the attack.
  • The threat actor tries to buy personal identifying information from any stolen database to carryout impersonation.
  • He then creates an email from the impersonated account, which looks so genuine and lures the target to open them.
  • The contents in the mail include some personalized data which he collected from dark web or some online markets.
  • The message in the mail will not be a harmful or threating one, but a simple and a harmless one like from an association or a charity trust. Hackers often try to work out the centimence.
  • The mail contains a link or attachment or PDF which is infected by malware.
  • Once the target successfully opens them, the malware will get delivered and the payload will be generated.
  • After this, the entire system comes under the control of the target. He can access each and every data in your device.

How to control phishing attacks?

  • Have a good knowledge about phishing attacks and defend them in the ways possible.
  • Never open suspicious links or attachments.
  • Install a spam filter that notifies the presence of virus or malware.
  • Always keep the systems and operating software up-to-date.
  • Install strong and secure anti-virus solution.
  • Install firewall to protect the networks.
  • Encrypt sensitive informations.

Organic farming of beans; procedures to follow

Organic farming is an upcoming technique of farming which was practiced by our ancestors in the olden days. When the people understood the benefits of organic products, they left the conventional technique of farming and began to implement organic farming. Comparatively, organic farming is much better than the conventional one which uses harmful fertilizers and pesticides that is harmful for humans as well as nature.

Now let us look into the farming techniques of beans.

Beans are long green vegetable which serves as a rich source of vitamins and nutrients and is an unavoidable part of our food culture. Beans are leguminous plants that come under the family of Fabaceae. Beans are rich with nutrients like proteins, iron, thiamine and riboflavin. Beans plants can be of two types; either it can be bush or creepers. Both their pods as well as seeds are consumed.

Bean crops can tolerate all weather conditions. They can be cultivated in farmlands are also grown as backyard crop. The bush varieties stay low to the ground whereas the creepers climb into poles for support. Bush beans produce yield in a shorter period while the creepers are a bit slow, but they supply yields throughout the season.

Different varieties of beans include dry beans, snap beans or green beans and soybean.

Beans are mainly cultivated in well-drained loamy soil which has a pH level between 5.5-6.0. Although these crops tolerate every climate, they are well grown in cool climates. Compared to other crops they are easy to grow. They produce quality yields even without applying fertilizers. If the soil is acidic, organic matters like dolomite lime, wood ashes and compost are added to balance the pH. Adding Nitrogen to the soil enhances leaf growth and pod production.

Beans are sown during early springs and they are sown in raised beds. Beans are maintained a gap of 4-7 inches. When the seeds sprout and the plant becomes mature, pruning is does to make the plant strong and healthy.

Before planting, the soil is ploughed well and work compost or fertilizer is applied. They are then left to receive full sun. The seeds are sown the next day. Once the seeds are planted, it is important to keep the soil moist to enhance germination. Mulching to done for this. The soil is covered with a layer of dry hay or grass. This is done throughout the season as it also reduces weed growth.

For the effective growth of bean crops, organic fertilizers like compost tea, worm teas, and liquid fertilizers are applied. The advantage of organic fertilizers is that along with enriching the crops, they also help in the growth of microorganisms present in the soil.

If at all you observe the leaves of the crops changing its colour to pale yellow, it’s time to apply the second set of nitrogen rich fertilizer.

Irrigation is done once after the sowing process, then in the third day and it is continued at 1 week interval. Beans are crops which require moisture content all the soil. The deficiency of the moisture content can cause defective bean pods.

Since beans are leguminous plants and has the capability to fix nitrogen in the soil, other crops sets can be grown along with beans. The most appropriate ones are carrots, chards, celery, eggplants, corn, peas, potatoes etc. These crops are heavy consumers of Nitrogen and cultivating these with beans gives good yield.

organic

Weeding process is done after 20-25 days of planting and after 40-45 days. In most of the cases hand weeding is done for bean crops. Since the stems are very delicate, machine weeding can damage the crops.

Major pests which infect bean crops are Japanese beetles, Mexican beetles and Aphids. These pests can be removed manually, if you find them on plants. If the spread is large, organic pesticides like garlic, onions, neem oil etc. are used to get rid of them.

Apart from pests, infects can destroy the crops. The main insects that targets bean crops are:

  • Soybean Aphid
  • Leafhoppers
  • Cutworm
  • Seedcorn maggot

Bacillus thuringiensis is commonly used to prevent insect attacks in bean crops.

When the pods become well developed and become rounded and snap, it is ready to harvest. Never let the beans turn yellow colour and should be plucked when it attains light green colour.

Organic farming of cherry; an introduction

Organic farming offers a helping hand to humans to regain their traditional farming technique that gained them good health and mitigated diseases. In olden days, chemicals were not easily available. So the farmers used organic products as manures, fertilizers and pesticides. This helped them to live in harmony with the nature. But as techniques and technology developed, we started using chemicals for easy results. This had a negative impact on people. So they decided to bring back the ancient technique called organic farming.

Here we are going to discuss about the organic farming of cherry.

Cherry is a red pulpy fruit which is liked by almost everyone. Apart from their taste, they are the power house of vitamins, minerals and other compounds. Physically, they are small and round in shape. They come under the family of Rosaceae.

Cherries are well adapted to sandy loamy soil which is slightly acidic in nature and has a balanced pH level. To be precise the pH level of the soil should be between 6.0-7.2. The loamy soil should be mixed with organic matter and gypsum to increase production. When the soil becomes too dense, then the crop may fall under the trap of the disease Phytophcthera. The area and atmosphere is a very important factor for cherry plants. The planting site should have a good circulation of air.

During the preparation of soil, organic matters like compost, manure, garden lime and peat moss are added to the soil in required amounts.

Cherry crops can be divided into two types: sweet and tart. Biologically sweet cherry tree reaches a height of 40 feet and tart cherry tree reaches 20 feet. Care should be taken until the cherry crop reaches maturity. Minimum pruning is done in cherry crops to remove the damaged branches and pave way for the new branches. Tart cherries are also known as pie cherries. These varieties are self-fertile types and will fruit alone.

Sweet cherries need dry and mild climates. But in this variety, pollination poses a major problem. These trees cannot pollinate other specific cultivars.

A few months before fruiting, the cherry trees are applied with nitrogen because they increase the vegetative growth.

The most common fertilizers applied to cherry trees are:

  • Compost
  • Decomposed farmyard wastes
  • Blood meal, bone meal, fish meal and cottonseed meal.
  • Rock phosphate

These organic matters are applied at the base of the tree with 6 inches away from the trunk

Commonly in cherry cultivation, mulching is done. Mulching is the process of covering the top layer of the soil with eco-friendly products like grass, leaves and crop residues. This maintains the moisture content in the soil and supports the growth of earthworms. Earthworms dig throughout the soil making them porous. Through these pores water reaches equally to the roots. Slowly, the organic matter decomposes and acts as manure for the tree.

Pests and diseases are a major threat to the cherry trees. The common diseases and pests that infect cherry trees are:

  • Black knot: Black knot is a fungal infection caused by the fungi Apiosporina morbosum. The disease can cause a knot like appearance in the branches and twigs of the tree. Once the infection is noticed, the affected branch should be immediately pruned away to restrict further spreading.
  • Powdery mildew: This is also a fungal infection caused by Podosphaera Clandestine. The disease can occur during the summer seasons. This infection can directly affect the yield. As in the previous case, pruning is done to avoid them.
  • Leaf spot: Leaf spot is a fungi causing disease that makes the leaves turn yellow and slowly makes them porous. ‘Blumeriella Jaapii’ is responsible for this. This disease mainly spread in humid climates.
  • Birds and other preys: When fruits start to ripen, birds and other insects feed on them and reduce the yield.

Cherries are harvested based on their form, colour and taste. From one cherry tree, we can harvest around 6 times in a single season.

Escalating Facebook hacks; how to fix them

The users of Facebook have drastically increased during the time of pandemic. People were forced to remain in their homes and they had no other entertainment than movies, TV shows and social media. Communication became easier through Facebook. People shared their thoughts, ideas and had debates & healthy discussion about different topics. Equally, the cyber-attacks and the scams against Facebook increased. Facebook turned into a perfect breeding platform for different cyber hacks.

As per the current status, Facebook has around 2.8 billion active users, which means the hackers have a vast number of possibilities to exploit. Even after implementing security protocols to prevent the leak of data, Facebook suffered a data breach in 2019 which compromised the information of around 30 million users and 500,000 phone numbers.

Although Facebook decided to strengthen its security and installed tight safety measures, the hackers were still able to hack individual accounts.

But how do they do this? Are you vulnerable to Facebook hacks?

As per the statistics, around 160,000 Facebook profiles are being hacked daily. The report says that if proper preventive measures are not taken, the number will go on increasing and our personal information will not be safe anymore.

In most of the cases, the security team of Facebook is not responsible for the privacy breach. The hackers use various sophisticated and technical tools to hijack people’s account by overcoming the security protocols. Before hacking a person’s account, they conduct a detailed study about the person and they take advantage of the target’s social and psychological naivety.

To hack a person’s account, it’s not mandatory that the hacker should directly hack his profile. Instead, he finds a friend of the target, hacks him and through him he reaches the target’s account. The hackers can hack you using your influential friends or followers.

While thinking in a broad sense, no one is safe in Facebook. Even the complete security ensuring platform like Twitter is vulnerable to cyber threats. Public figures, celebrities, politicians, activists etc. are being constantly targeted by the cyber hackers.

Compared to other social media platforms, Facebook tends to connect people who are close to each other.

According to the survey of Facebook, around 120 million accounts are reported to be fake. By the initiative of the developers, they have taken detected and taken down around 234.6 million spam contents.

The most common happening in Facebook is that the scammer impersonates as a friend or family friend to compromise the account of the target. In these cases, the target’s connections are compromised before they attack their targets.

When the target is a Facebook-business related victim, then his business will be adversely affected by the attack.

How do the cyber criminals take over a Facebook account?

  • Phishing and social engineering attacks
  • Faulty links and spyware
  • To hack the passwords, hackers execute Brute Force attack.
  • Password and username leak.

How can you prevent the hacking of your Facebook account?

  • Never click or open sceptical links or attachments.
  • Never save your login credentials in your phone or any other device.
  • When you create a password, include letters, numbers and other characters to make it strong.
  • Never disclose personal informations like email address and phone number in public platforms like Facebook.
  • Never login from unauthorized websites.
  • Never login to Facebook from public networks and Wi-Fi’s.
  • Keep your login credentials safe and never share it with anyone.

Organic farming of spinach; tips to remember

Organic farming is considered as an efficient method to grow crops and to produce nutrient rich yields. This technique avoids the use of harmful chemicals and pesticides that is toxic for the human body. They use eco-friendly products as manures, fertilizers and pesticides. Organic farming maintains a harmony with the nature and the living organisms.

Here we are going to check about the planting techniques of spinach.

Spinach is a healthy green leaf vegetable which we use in our day to day life. They are a rich source of fibre and nutrients. Spinach originated in Persia. They come under the family tree of “Amaranth” where the other branches include beets and quinor.

The medical benefits of spinach include; increases eye power, reduces oxidative stress, helps to defend cancer and reduces blood pressure levels.

Spinaches are either eaten raw or cooked.

Spinaches are cultivated in different seasons. Some are cultivated in early springs, some during the fall and some in winter seasons. They are best adapted to cold conditions. During the day time, these crops require full sun and regular irrigation. They should be planted in loose soil rich with nutrients. Before planting the crops, the soil is well applied with organic compost up to 8 inch depth. Check the farmland and remove large rocks and crush chunks of soil from the farmland.

As an additional resource, organic nitrogen products such as Alfalfa meal or blood meal for the healthier growth of the leaves. They are very productive when they are grown in cool temperatures. The germination of seeds requires temperature between 7-24 degree Celsius. Soil pH level should be high to produce better yields.

To be specific, the peat soil is appropriate for the cultivation of spinach. Mainly cover crops, manures and compost are added to the soil. Slowly the cover crop decay and increases the microbial activity. Along with spinach other rotational crops are cultivated to defend some diseases and nematodes. They even help to reduce weed population.

Cover crops play a major role in the cultivation of spinach. They prevent soil erosion, refine soil tilth and helps in nutrient management.

Even though they prefer cold, they are well grown under full sun and the standard pH of the soil should be 6.5-7.5. Since the spinach plants will have long tap roots, the beds should be ploughed enough and made loose for the roots to penetrate.

During the time of sowing, the seeds are directly applied to the soil about ½ inches deep. Apply required amount of water and always try to maintain the moisture content in the soil. Moisture content helps in the growth of the plant and hinders bolting. One way to keep up the moisture content is through mulching. Mulching also prevents the growth of weeds.

When the crops reaches maturity, irrigation is done about 4-6 days during summer season and 10-12 days during winter season. In most of the cases, drip irrigation is practiced.

To avoid weeds, methods like crop rotation, covering crops and planting designs are considered.

To increase the growth rate, organic fertilizers like fish emulsion and compost tea are applied.

Major pest that affects spinach are:

  • Spinach blight
  • Flea beetles
  • Leaf miners
  • Cutworms and wireworms
  • Slugs and snails
  • Aphids

Common diseases affecting spinach crops are:

  • Damping-off
  • Downy mildew
  • Viruses

When all these factors are considered, the crop becomes ready to harvest after 25-30 days of sowing.

Organic farming of jackfruit; major procedures

Organic farming depends mainly on the environment to nurture the crops and increase the yield. Since natural preservatives and additives are added to the plant, they grow very fast and give high quality yields which have no side effects. Normal type of farming uses chemical insecticides and pesticides which harms the living organisms and poses a threat to their existence. This will adversely affect the food chain as well as the chemicals can cause various diseases to human body like cancer. Afraid of this, today’s farmers are adopting new techniques of organic farming. Compared to conventional farming, they also get good rates for organic products in the market.

Here we are going to study about the farming techniques of jack fruit.

Jack fruit is a delicious exotic fruit mainly grown in tropical regions. Jackfruit originated from South India. This is a major fruit found in the state of Kerala. They belong to the family of Moraceae and are related to mulberry, fig and breadfruit. Jackfruit has an oval shape with spikes on the outer region. Normally they are green outside and have yellow yummy part inside.

Jack fruit is considered as the largest fruit in the world which can reach up to 80 pounds in weight.

The tropically grown fruit is exported to different parts of the world like UK, US, UAE etc.

Jackfruit consists of layers of flesh called the fruit pods. They are consumed both raw and ripened form. Each pod consists of seeds which are also edible. The scientific name of Jack fruit is Artocarpus heterophyllus. Jack fruit is also used for medicinal purposes that helps to boost our immune system, increases digestion and protects against cancer, asthma, blood pressure etc.

The suitable climate to grow jackfruit is warm and humid climate of South India. They are also cultivated in hilly slopes having humid climate and are 1500m above sea level. Jackfruit does not bear cold climates and can lead to the damage of the fruit. Even in the rainy season, the water content in the fruit can increase and reduces the sugar content in them.

They are well grown in sandy loam soil which contains a pH of 6.0-7.5. These crops do not like water logging. It can cause many diseases and can also lead to the inadequate growth of the fruit. So the drainage system should be efficient.

Providing organic matters at regular intervals enhances the growth of the tree. The best site to grow jackfruit tree is on the banks of river beds.

Seedlings are raised from seeds through the process of grafting.

Before planting the seedlings, the land is ploughed thoroughly and made weed free. It is made a fine tilth. Proper drainage channels are constructed.

The seedlings are placed in a depth, on top of which the soil mixed with farmyard manure is applied. The optimum period to plant seeds are June to September. To protect the grafts from damage, the land is mulched with dry coconut leaves.

Jackfruits trees are generally grown under rainy conditions, so irrigation during this period is not necessary. But once the rainy season ends, regular irrigation is done during the initial 2-3 years. Ring irrigation is commonly practiced for these trees.

During the initial stage of maturity, the plants are maintained a single stem. The early side branches are removed in order to obtain a smooth trunk growth.

Along with the cultivation of jackfruit, other intercrops like vegetables and pulses are planted.

Fertilizers to jackfruit trees are applied during the rainy season. Mainly, organic fertilizers like farmyard manure, Nitrogen, Potash and Potassium are applied to the crops.

When the tree bears fruit, the major pests which infect the fruits are ‘brown weevil’. This pest digs into the fruit to consume them and then leaving them to rot. To avoid these pests from coming, first clear the farmland from fallen fruits and buds. They are chemically controlled by spraying Monocrotophos.

Jackfruit is harvested after 7 years of planting. Plants developed from grafted seeds produce fruits from the 4th year. The harvesting period of jackfruit is from March to June.